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Sam Spade
''A MAN CALLED SPADE'' NAME: '''Samuel Spade '''BORN: circa 1884 or so SPECIES: '''human '''ETHNICITY/NATIONALITY: American HEIGHT: 6'1" HAIR: blond EYES: yellow-grey (Yes, he's PBed by Humphrey Bogart regardless of the preceeding statistics. Typist can't fight tradition.) OCCUPATION: private detective CANON POINT: just after "They Can Only Hang You Once" ''TOO MANY HAVE LIVED'' Spade is a mystery, and purposely so. For most of his novel-length debut, he lets both the cops and the crooks think he's in business for the money, and plans to profit from helping the crooks get their loot and get away with murder. In reality, however, he blows the case wide open and solves it for the relentless if not entirely competent police duo on the trail. It's never clear, however, even at the end, what his own moral views are, except that they're probably not as shady as he lets people think. Spade is certainly a cynic, quite jaded even before his partner is murdered. He's also more than a bit of a womanizer, though if he gets emotionally involved, he certainly doesn't show it, nor do such feelings (if they exist) get in the way of his logical judgment regarding women he's formerly or presently involved with. That said, he does have a sense of humor, and has real affection for his secretary, and even a half-playful, half combative relationship with detective Dundy and his partner Polhaus, who work the beat Sam operates in. At the end of the day, Spade is cool, detached, professional, and very very good at what he does. Whether he's acting for justice,money, or simply because he's talented... it's an open question. ''THE MALTESE FALCON'' Canon Hammett purposely leaves Spade incredibly enigmatic; he pops out of nowhere, at the beginning of the novel, and we get almost no hint as to what Spade's life outside detecting was or is like. (We get tiny references, such as his familiarity with English revolvers and an offhand comment about families with skeletons in the closet that may or may not just be a bait to Dundy, but nothing more.) What is known is that, at some point, Miles Archer and Samuel Spade went into business together as private eyes in San Fransisco. Archer was about ten years Spade's senior, but it seems Spade was always the better detective. They'd quickly earned a reputation for effectiveness and discretion, which made them popular with clients but less than popular with the police; between their wits and their attorney Sid Wise, they managed keep their licenses and stay out of trouble with the law (though not for lack of trying on the DA's part). At some point, they hired a secretary, Effie Perine, a bit younger than Spade. She and Spade have an on-again-off-again sexual relationship in addition to their always-on friendship. Archer, it seems, was as much of a philanderer (if not moreso) than Spade, though it's never clear if anything happened between him and Effie. At some point soon before the start of The Maltese Falcon, Spade became involved in an affair with Archer's wife, Iva. Iva, however, turned out to be very clingy and kept pressuring Spade to commit to marrying her if she divorced her husband. Spade, having no intention of doing any such thing, was looking for a way to end the relationship without her telling Miles everything and making work awkward. Before this could happen, however, they were hired by a woman calling herself Wonderly to track a man named Thursby. Archer, looking to make time with the very pretty client, volunteers. Archer is found dead that night; Thursby is killed shortly after. The police suspect Spade of one or both murders. Either he killed Thursby in revenge for shooting Archer, or he killed Archer to get with his wife. (Incidentally, Iva also thinks Spade might have killed Miles, which may say something about the state of that relationship.) He finds out "Miss Wonderly" was actually named Brigid O'Shaughnessy, and that the reasons she'd given him for looking for Thursby were phony. Spade gets drawn into a complicated mess of double crosses and lies involving Brigid, her old accomplice Joel Cairo, and their former/present employer Casper Gutman. All of them are seeking the Maltese Falcon, an artifact worth a great deal of money. Spade, while sleeping with Brigid and dodging the cops, manages to piece together the series of events that have occurred. He manages to gain possession of the Falcon, and after a long night of bluffing and cleverness, sets the cops after Cairo and Gutman, who've fled. Brigid, who stays with Spade thinking he'll protect her, is rudely surprised when he says he knows that she was the one who killed Miles. Despite the fact that he may or may not love her, and may or may not believe she loves him, he's not going to take the fall for her. Though she pleads with him, he turns her over to the police. The bird turns out to be worthless, though whether it's a replica of a real object or the real object was always a myth is unclear. (The typist strongly recommends you watch the film and/or read the novel, as both are fantastic, despite the fact you've just had all the surprises spoiled for you.) Time passes, and Spade doesn't take a new partner, instead retaining Effie and changing the business' name from "Spade and Archer" to "Samuel Spade, Detective." He continues working in San Fransisco, running into Dundy and Polhaus on another couple occasions, and being hired by everyone from respectable lawyers to shady underworld tycoons. It's clear he's maintained a reputation for being less moral than he is, as he's even asked obliquely to kill a man by a client, though he refuses. Directly before his arrival in the nexus, Spade was investigating an old man on behalf of the man's nephew; the client suspected his uncle was being unduly influenced in his choice of heirs, as his will had not yet been made public. The man in question turned out to be a fraud, and committed a double homicide while Spade was in the house. Spade promptly puts the pieces together, the man confesses, and Dundy is on hand to take the man away. Spade leaves, satisfied, only to find himself abruptly back in another world; his first jaunt had been between The Maltese Falcon and the subsequent short stories. Xanadu TBA ''THEY CAN ONLY HANG YOU ONCE'' Relationships TBA ''SUSPENSE RADIO THEATRE'' ''- Little Drop of Poison - Tom Waits -- '' I like my town with a little drop of poison/Nobody knows they're lining up to go insane/I'm all alone, I smoke my friends down to the filter/But I feel much cleaner after it rains ''- The Beginning Is the End Is the Beginning - The Smashing Pumpkins --'' For now we stand alone/The world is lost and blown/And we are flesh and blood disintegrate/With no more to hate/Is it bright where you are/And have the people changed/Does it make you happy you're so strange/And in your darkest hour/My old secrets laid/We can watch the world devoured in its pain ''- It Ain't Me Babe - Bob Dylan --'' Go ’way from my window/Leave at your own chosen speed/I’m not the one you want, babe/I’m not the one you need/You say you’re lookin’ for someone/Never weak but always strong/To protect you an’ defend you/Whether you are right or wrong/Someone to open each and every door/But it ain’t me, babe/No, no, no, it ain’t me, babe/It ain’t me you’re lookin’ for, babe ''- Nothing to Do With Love - The Elms --'' There's a rip, like a hole/In the heart, in the soul/Of the man who wants nothing to do with love./There's a good, like a hope/That you could never know/If you say you want nothing to do with love./If you can never be true, it's got nothing to do/It's got nothing to do with love./If there's a devil in you, he's got nothing to do/He's got nothing to do with love. ''- The Rat - The Walkmen --'' You've got a nerve to be asking a favor/You've got a nerve to be calling my number, I know,/We've been through this before./Can't you hear me, I'm/ Pounding on your door/Can't you see me, I'm/calling out your name./Can't you hear me I'm, bleeding on the wall. ''- City of Angels - Red Hot Chili Peppers --'' Sometimes I feel like I don't have a partner/Sometimes I feel like my only friend/Its the city I live in, the city of angels/Lonely as I am, together we cry/I drive on her streets cause she's my companion/I walk through her hills and she knows who I am/She sees my good deeds and she kisses me windy/I never worry, now that is a lie. ''- Ain't No Reason - Brett Dennen --'' A window and a pigeon with a broken wing,/You can spend your whole life workin’ for something/Just to have it taken away./People walk around pushing back their debts,/Wearing pay checks like necklaces and bracelets,/Talking ‘bout nothing, not thinking ‘bout death,/Every little heartbeat, every little breath./People walk a tight rope on a razors edge/Carrying their hurt and hatred and weapons./It could be a bomb or a bullet or a pen/Or a thought or a word or a sentence. Category:Characters Category:Living